THE STORY OF THE HUMAN JESUS AND/OR THE EMPTY TOMBS

There is no evidence of any knowledge of a tomb of Jesus (empty or occupied) prior to the Gospel stories It is interesting that so much effort goes into defending the claim of the “empty tomb” of Jesus that appears in the ending scenes of the Gospels, yet there is nothing in any of the writings that precede the Gospels that make any mention of either an “empty tomb” or any burial site or even a crucifixion site. Would Paul have said nothing about the site of Jesus’ burial? Would Paul not have mentioned a visit to Golgotha, the location of Jesus’ crucifixion? It’s not just Paul, but indeed there is no evidence of any veneration of any locations that are associated with Jesus in the Gospels until after the Gospels were circulated. Most importantly, though, we find no evidence of any veneration of the supposed tomb of Christ, which to this day remains an unknown and unidentifiable locale. In the book, Beyond Resurrection, New Testament scholar Alexander. J. M. Wedderburn attempts to find evidence for the resurrection of Jesus and the “empty tomb”.

He concludes that no such evidence exists and that Christians have to remain agnostic as to the historical reality of this event and continue to take it on blind faith. As a part of his investigation into the matter, Wedderburn addresses the fact that we have no evidence of veneration of the tomb of Jesus following his supposed death. He considers the possibility that early believers would simply not have cared about this site, but noting that the site of the “empty tomb” would have…